Month: September 2011

I think there is a special place in hell for vivisectors. I’d like to argue for a tenth circle of hell just for these bastards. Now, that’s not to say that most of the scientists involved in vivisection are not decent human beings who love their wives (most vivisectors are men) and children. It’s also not to say that vivisectors are inherently cruel and in fact I’ve heard all the arguments that it’s only through animal experimentation that we’ve become such a healthy society. Bollocks.

Nevertheless, most animal experimenters like to think they’re working for the greater good. I’d argue they’re doing the devils bidding. And in fact, aren’t most roads that lead to hell paved with good intentions? Indeed they are.

I abhor vivisection and animal experimentation like nothing else in the world. To me it is the cruelest and most violent of assaults we commit against animals and the natural world. It is perverted violence hoping to be sanitized through the lens of humanity’s selfish and ignorant view that we are the pinnacle of God’s creation and should pursue any end to our own longevity, increased health or narcissistic glory.

I’m not going to argue the specifics as to why vivisection is not only unnecessary but also counter productive, you can read more here if you’re looking for those arguments. It is telling however that University studies have concluded that at best, animal testing and experimentation have accounted for at most 3.5% of the decline in mortality rates since 1900. Most of our increased health and longevity has been thanks to public health measures and better sanitation.

Regardless, these are not sound arguments for or against animal testing. The only argument that is above reproach when it comes to animal experimentation is that there is no consent. And because we will never be able to obtain consent from these sentient beings we cannot experiment on them.

It is the height of arrogance and of human frailty to think that because they don’t look like us or they don’t speak like us that we can do with them as we wish. Might has never had any moral justification for doing what it feels is right because it has the power to do so. There is only one principal or guiding rule that we need to follow to live a righteous and moral life and that if the golden rule. Do unto others as you would have done unto you. And “others” includes any sentient creature.

I hope there is a dawning and an awakening of humanity as we come to truly understand that mice and lambs and cows and monkeys and all sentient creatures are deserving of protection from impudence and the right to a life unencumbered by human violence. Welfarist movements are bound to fail and they fail consistently because who is overseeing the vivisectors in this case? The oversight bodies are consistently having to charge vivisectors and Universities for not even carrying out the most watered down welfare protections.

There is only one way to eradicate the suffering of animals and that is to abolish it. Everything else is half measures and platitudes. Animals should have at the very least the right to be free from suffering. I would go further, but that must be at the very least the starting point.

Animals are kindred spirits and they do feel pain and suffer as much if not more so than us. For whom can they cry out and ask for mercy? Surely not the mute god of humans who like a fictitious ghost just looks on. No, they suffer in relative silence behind closed walls because what is done to them is shameful and surely must push heaven into a rage.

So I implore you if you have any tender feelings for any animals to boycott Bob’s Red Mill until they revoke their $25 million funding to one of the worst abusers of animals in the United States of America and that is Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU). The informed vegan has more information about the specifics. I urge you to tweet @Bobs_Red_Mill and @OHSUnews to stop these abuses.

If you stand for nothing my friends you will fall for anything. Let us speak up unanimously for those who have no voice of their own. I will not rest my position until all animal experimentation has been stopped.

UPDATED: It appears that Bob’s Red Mill have updated their stand on this donation and it WILL NOT be used to fund animal research. With that in mind, I find Bob’s products to be a fine addition to the vegan diet.

“Vivisection is the blackest of all the black crimes that man is at present committing against God and His fair creation. It ill becomes us to invoke in our daily prayers the blessings of God, the Compassionate, if we in turn will not practice elementary compassion towards our fellow creatures.” – Gandhi